Detroit Suffers With The Burden Of Matt Millen

History is replete with leaders who failed their people. From Pol Pot to Hitler, Napoleon, and Arafat, each presumed to know what was best for their people — only to fail miserably. In the same way, if not the same consequences, Matt Millen makes a mockery of the Detroit Lions. If by some miracle, the Lions were a great nation, the people would revolt and exile Millen to Canada.

The 30 years I have spent watching football and the many hours spent reading about its history, there has never been a general manager so inept as to draw comparisons to butchers like Pol Pot. Yet, in a football sense, Millen is worse. He has not murdered people, but his leadership alone is worthy of the title The Detroit Butcher.

A record of 23-73 is preposterous. Imagine an owner of a professional franchise extending the contract of a man who has presided over a team that has won 24% of its games. In fact, the people of Detroit don’t have to imagine it — they live it. Matt Millen, dope extraordinaire, received an extension in 2005 for five more years.

And people say the Germans were crazy?

The owner of the Lions, William Clay Ford, is responsible. He doesn’t care a whit about winning or putting a quality product on the field. If his automobile production dipped as drastically as the Lions production, he would have fired managers left and right. Yet, for reasons unknown, he believes in Millen.

Some people posit Millen has pictures of Ford doing something naughty, perhaps involving a poodle. It is nonsense. There are no conspiracies or dirty pictures. No. Lions fans see an example of stubbornness. Millen, with any pride, would resign. If Ford cared about Detroit, he’d fire Matt. Neither is apparently willing to budge on their decisions to stick it out.

Sadly for the Lions, there’s no allied army to come and forcibly remove two incompetent boobs.